John Gassner

John Waldhorn Gassner (January 30, 1903 – April 2, 1967) was a Hungarian-born American theatre historian, critic, educator, and anthologist.

Early life and education At birth in the town of Máramarossziget, Hungary (today in Romania), he was given the name Jeno Waldhorn Gassner. He emigrated to the United States in 1911 with his family and soon discovered theatre performance at his local school. Only four years in New York, he appeared in a school production of The Tempest. Gassner graduated from Dewitt Clinton High School in The Bronx. In his youth and early adulthood, he was a supporter of Socialism. Gassner received a Bachelor of Arts (1923) degree and a Master of Arts (1924) degree from Columbia University.

Writing career Gassner was prolific and successful as a writer and editor. He began his career as a book reviewer at The New York Herald-Tribune (1925–1928), also wrote frequently for New Theatre Magazine (1934–1937), The Forum (1937), Time Magazine (1938), Direction (1937–1941), One Act Play Magazine (1937–1941), and among several others, The Tulane Drama Review (1957–1967). He became a member of TDR's advisory board in 1958. Gassner mentored not only theater artists, but also editors like Edmund Fuller.

Gassner died of a heart ailment at the age of 64. In an obituary, the performance theorist, director, and TDR editor Richard Schechner wrote that Gassner was "a warm man" who had "a rare combination of humanity and intelligence." At the memorial service in New York City, playwright Robert Anderson and Yale dean Robert Brustein spoke.

Anthologies and monographs (selection) Gassner's anthologies appeared frequently and became a staple of the dramatic literature publishing world. Long after his death, even into the 1990s, Crown Publishers was issuing anthologies of The Best American Plays edited by other people but as part of the series called John Gassner Best Plays Series. His work as an editor and anthologist was ambitious enough to prompt Milton Esterow to remark in a review that "hardly a day seems to pass without the publication of a book by John Gassner." Best Plays of the Early American Theatre: From the Beginning to 1916 The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama Twenty-five Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre: Early Series Twenty Best European plays on the American Stage Best American Plays (several different anthologies) Eugene O'Neill Producing the Play Masters of the Drama Treasury of the Theater

Secondary sources Evelyn Mary MacQueen: John Gassner: Critic and Teacher. Ann Arbor, Mich., University Microfilms , Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1966.

Archival sources Gassner's records are kept at the Ransom Center and, to a smaller extent, at Sterling Memorial Library at Yale.